CLT20 format and match schedule announced

The third edition of the Champions League T20 tournament featuring top teams from different countries will be jointly hosted by Chenai, Bengaluru and Kolkata.

The format for tournament which will commence on September 23 and go on through till October 9 will follow the same format as the previous edition.

There will also be a 6 team event to decide the final 3 qualifiers for the mega event at Hyderabad from Sept 19-21.

Seven teams have already booked a place in the event while the 3 other teams will have to seal their place through the qualifiers.

The two stages are explained below:

Stage I: Qualifier

Venue: Hyderabad

Dates: 19 September - 21 September

The Kolkata Knight Riders, Trinidad and Tobago and Auckland Aces will particpate in the qualifiers and they will be joined by 1 team from Sri Lanka and 2 from England who are yet to be decided. The format for the qualifier is yet to be announced.

Stage II: 2011 Champions League Twenty20

Dates: 23 September - 9 October

Venues: Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata

The II stage of the tournament will see the 10 teams(including the top 3 from the qualifiers) divided into 2 groups of 5. The top 2 teams from each group will go on to play in the semi finals. The Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians along with 2 teams each from Australia and South Africa will make up the seven who have already booked their place in Stage II.

Bengaluru will play host to the inaugural game on 23 September and along with Chennai will host a semi-final. The Final will be played in Chennai on 9 October.

The Chennai Super Kings, the defending CLT20 Champions, have been drawn in Group A along with Cape Cobras (South Africa's Pro20 Series Champions), 2009 CLT20 Champions NSW Blues and Mumbai Indians. The fifth team from the group will be the team that finishes top of Pool B in the Qualifier.

Group B contains Royal Challengers Bangalore (2010 IPL Runner-Up), Warriors (2010 CLT20 Runner-up) and South Australian Redbacks (Australia's Twenty20 Big Bash Champions). The remaining two places will come from the Qualifier (the top of Pool A and the next highest qualifier).

The tournament starts in Bengaluru on Friday 23 September with a Group B clash between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Warriors at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, the second time that the venue has hosted the CLT20 opener.

Royal Challengers Bangalore is the only team to have qualified for the past three tournaments while their opponent was the surprise of last year's event, using its home ground advantage in Port Elizabeth to great effect in the group stage on their way to the Final.

Group A action gets underway the following day with a double header in Chennai with Cape Cobras and NSW Blues in the early match followed by an IPL battle between MS Dhoni's all-conquering Super Kings and Sachin Tendulkar's Mumbai Indians.

Teams that emerge from the Qualifier won't start their group stage matches until 25 September, giving them time to regroup and prepare for their campaign.

The addition of the qualifier adds another dimension to this year's tournament. While half the teams will go home disappointed before the group stage, the three that qualify will be match-hardened and a legitimate contender after surviving CLT20's unique pressure.